Side effects from the Electronic Cigarette

26th September 2010

When you first start using your electronic cigarette you may experience some unusual side affects. This comprehensive list should put your mind at ease by explaining the possible cause or reason of the most common problems related in/directly to the electronic cigarette. Before you read any further i feel it is my responsibility to explain that i have NO medical background and this article is primarily based on my own and other electronic cigarette users experiences all around the world. The symptoms on the list provided are quite rare, but if they are persistent or irritating you you should go and see your doctor for a more expert opinion.

Electronic Cigarette & Side Effects

Headaches- If you are experiencing a painful headache you have most probably inhaled too much nicotine. You need to put your electronic cigarette down and drink lots of water. When you decide you are fit to vape again, please consider using a lower nicotine strength e cig liquid or just cutting down on the vaping sessions. If you do not think your headache is a result of your nicotine intake then this might be of interest – “Changing brain oxygen and chemical levels, added anxiety or tension, possible temporary sleep disruption, increased caffeine levels, or diet changes can all result in headaches. According to the Ward “abstinence effects” study, 33% of smokers reported having headaches immediately PRIOR to quitting. Interestingly, those reporting headaches peaked on day three (72 hours) at 44%, dropped to 17% on day seven, and had declined to a low of just 11% on day fourteen.” taken from http://whyquit.com/whyquit/a_symptoms.html

Sore/Dry Throat or Nose- This may be related to Propylene Glycol (PG). PG is a humectant meaning it attracts moisture and could leave your throat feeling dry or sore. I had this problem every morning but after a few weeks it decided to go away and it never came back. It could just be your throat adjusting from your usual smoke to vapour. Try drinking a lot of water and if the problem becomes very painful please consult your GP for an PG allergy test. Alternative, you could try Vegetable Glycerine E liquid (VG) if the problem persists or if you find you are allergic to PG.

Muscle Aches – PG converts itself into lactic acid in the body. This is the most likely cause of muscle aches. Make sure to drink lots of water to flush the excess lactic acid out of your system.

Strong Smelling Urine – This is reported by some users but I have yet to have found an explanation.

Spots or Acne – This is something that is said to be a by-product of giving up smoking. When you stop smoking a lot of unpleasant toxins are free to escape your body and the face is a good escape route for them. Trapped toxins will cause acne or spots.

Coughing up Tar – This is also what happens when you stop smoking cigarettes. Your lungs begin to clean themselves!

Hiccups – If you keep getting the hiccups this is most likely to do with too much nicotine entering your body. Make sure you are not ingesting any drops of e juice from your cartridge and if e liquid is frequently entering your mouth please buy a new electronic cigarette! I would refrain from heavy vaping sessions with any sort of high strength e liquid and cut down my e liquid strength also.

Bleeding Gums – I have heard of a few people reporting bleeding gums when brushing their teeth. This is quite a common symptom of quitting smoking, apparently smokers have thicker gums. This should heal up after a week or so, but if it carries on please go and see a doctor because it could be something more serious.

Reported Benefits from the Electronic Cigarette

Here is a list of common benefits when using the electronic cigarette. Please take into consideration that the electronic cigarette is not proven to have any benefit on your health and is in no way a medical device.

Fingernails/tips turning from yellowish to clear.
Teeth becoming whiter.
Gums going a dark pink colour instead of grey.
Mood is more balanced and less prone to irritation.
More breath and stamina during exercise.
Food tasting and smelling more.
Firmer erection.

If you are feeling any other symptoms please feel free to comment and explain them so we can add to the list and also try and help you with some of your problems. I would also recommend googling “the symptoms of quitting smoking” where you will find a lot of the symptoms are directly related to quitting smoking rather than your electronic cigarette.

65 Responses to “Side effects from the Electronic Cigarette”

Ordered my e-cigs and from the day they were delivered have not had another tobacco cigarette. After a couple weeks, I also stopped the e-cigs.

Wonderful, right? No tobacco cigs OR e-cigs. Totally nicotine free!!

But – my breathing did NOT get better. It got worse every day. After a cig free month, I was very short winded just walking across a room. I actually considered having some tobacco cigs to see if my breathing would get better, like it was before I stopped smoking, but didn’t do it.

I ended up in the Emergency room and in the hospital on Oxygen for a week. Then went to rehab for 3 weeks to regain strength (still on oxygen).

Went home – NO home Oxygen or any other treatment recommended. Oximeter readings in low 90’s.

Now 6 months later, still no e-cigs or reg. cigs. Oximeter readings in the 80’s and once 76. Getting winded easily again.

Is the above a side effect of e-cigs?
Anyone else having this type of problem?

Terri, have ur heart checked. I never put the breathing problems w my heart but in fact they were. This was prior to ecigs. Just a suggestion. Oh.. And insist on an echo stress test! EKG can be normal even w heart issue.

I know this is an old post but I’m posting this for people who stumble across it like I have. I work as an Emergency Medical Technician. This sounds like Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) or Emphysema.

You probably had it before you quit, but your blood vessels are less constricted now and the extra blood flow probably increased the effects to the point that you could notice. This doesn’t mean that quitting smoking was a bad idea, simply that you caught it at an earlier stage, rather than later in life when it got so bad that you noticed it while still smoking.

I have developed some severe mouth and tongue sores. Looking back they started after I started the non-nicotine e-cig. I don’t even use it daily now and am wondering if anyone has complained of this side effect. I’ve rinsed my mouth with salt water, listerene., anbesol for sores and nystatin to no avail. Will trial not using the cig and see if have better results.

What about some hair loss? When i tried to quit somkeing and was using nicotine throat lozenges in combination with nicotine gum i KNOW that this is what was causing my hair to fall out. I stopped using those things as soon as i thought it was the cause, and then my hair stopped falling out over-normally. It wasn't like i was going bald, but (i'm F/27) a significant amount of hair was falling out vs. the normal amount that people lose daily. Ok, so now i've gotten into using e-cigarettes. The VG liquid type, but perhaps i have been vaping too much recently (due to stress) and I feel as if more hair their usual is falling out… again. It seems to me that this could be from too much liquid nicotine running thought my body. Has any one else had this side effect. I don't want to switch back to analogs (burnable tobacco cigarettes) so i have just been trying to vape less and i plan on buying a lower dosage of e-liquid ASAP. Thoughts?

I was shocked to see this thing really satisfied my cigarette taste.I have been smoking for almost forty years,if I can get this kind of satisfaction, anyone can.I smoke a pack to 2 packs a day,but when i started this, in one day I didnt even smoke a pack that day.If u are a menthol smoker make sure you get menthol ,cause u wont like the taste,and u will give up.Dont give up,I actually cried,and cried because I never thought I could ever quit,but now I know I have a good ,good, good chance of quiting.

I quit smoking 3 weeks ago today & have been using the ecig. Down to 0mg no nicotene. My side effects have been mild to severe panic attacks. High anxiety. Panic attacks are new to me. Very scary. Never had them, ever. Been a smoker for 25 years. Thanks

Only bed effect I have had since using them ( 3 wekks now) has been for the first week, i was always feeling sick.
However this past, and i feel fine now.
One the good side, i have never had a craving for a real cig since starting the e-cigs.

It is also worth noting that real cigs contain between 4000 – 5000 chemicals, and around 70 of those cause cancer.
PG found in e-cigs, is ALSO found in real cigs. a list of the over 600 chemicals that cig company's add to cigs can be found on the Bupa website.

This is the third time I've slept in after using the electronic cigarette. I'm normally a light sleeper, but I hear nothing….including my alarm going off until about 1-2 hours after I should have got up. Its now the second day I've blagged off work so I'm not using it at night any more; its really quite disturbing.
I also have sore throat which effects my ears.

I have been using E cigs since Feb 2013 at first I found it very good ,did not want a normal cig and have not had one since starting with my e cig..Over the past 6 weeks or so I have been having stomach cramps and going to the toilet alot more than normal{today I have been 7 times}I am now convinced it the E cigs that is causing this..Just returned from Turkey, where they have banned all e cigs,talking to a Turkish guy who told me he had been rushed into hospital with severe stomach cramp and more than normal bowel movements…they told him it was what was in the e liquid that had caused his problem..I have stopped using mine today because my sypmtoms are getting worse,seeing a doctor next week because this is bothering me..

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hi i have been using e-vape liquid cig for a year now and all was well up untill 5 months ago when i started to ache reallly bad from head to foot sometimes to the point that i have trouble walking first thing in the morning after getting out of bed and after sitting then standing,the problem is getting worse so i have decided to stop the e-vape cigs and go on to the ones that look like a cig to see if things improve if not i will have to lower the nicotine strength,i may have been puffing too much and therefore taking in too much nicotine,people have told me to not use it so much.

Using e cig and now on day 5 of no smoking and using a medium strength disposable one. I am having headaches since evening of day 4. 1st e cig lasted till day 4 and I bought a higher strength which was used up very quickly that day. I think I must have either a bad batch with the heavier one because I did not over use it at all. I usually slowly puff a few puffs for 10 – 15 seconds ,put it down and maybe again in a few mins but then put it down for 1-2 hours. The evening time between few puffs might only be half an hour. Headaches got worse today but I used it very little and back down to a low strenght e cig. Is one puff on an ecig equal to 1 puff on a cig? Or should 1-2 puffs give you same satisfaction as a full cig? All tips grateful

Recently i have almost completely switched to electronic cigarettes. for the last 3 days my throat feels swollen, like it happens with hayfever… it feels like there's something in my throat, i try to swallow but it doesn't go away. i never had this with cigarettes and i was on 35 a day…. the symptom goes if i don't use the electronic cigarette too much… i am worried that i'll acquire chronic asthma because of the electronic cigarette. anyone else has had a similar problem?

still very thankful, and e-cigs helped me to quit smoking. i used e-cigs for about 2 weeks, after that i stopped using it. i keeped my gadget as a remembrance. i experienced some side effects using e-cigs, these are dryness of my mouth and breathing difficulty, just like im having sinusitis. But a very good advantage of using e-cigs is that i used it as an alternative to quit smoking. after 14 days, when i feel that i am free from smoking, i also have to quit it either. whatever the side effects of e-cig was… atleast mission accomplished to quit smoking. i was a smoker for more than 20 years, and i tried many times to quit it. and e-cig helped. thanks.

after giveing up 40 fags a day for e cig , i found that i could get on with it better than i thought. But lately ive started to notice that i cant smell or taste anything i must admit i feel better and can breath much better now than before does anybody have this problem??????

Losing your taste and sense of smell is pretty common when giving up cigarettes, it’s mainly your body clearing all the junk out of your system, and I’d recommend having a decent strong menthol such as Arctic Frost to hand to vape through it

I find I get very dizzee some times I know it could be due to head rush but I have never got that as a smoker in 9 years of smoking but the moment I used it I got dizzee. It has stopped now was only for the first day other than than they are great.

Hi,
I’ve been amazed that after smoking heavily for years I’ve been amazed at the switch to the e cig/vape liquid. I was on nearly 40 a day and now haven’t touched a real cigarette for nearly 3 months!
What I was going to ask has been explained in earlier responses which was about dryness of mouth and loss of taste. Also my tongue feeling a bit ‘numb’ and food tastes a bit weird but that would be from the loss of taste.
Other than that im feeling more energetic, I can actually breathe deeply and my sense of smell is amazing!

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ive been using elec cig for bout 3 months and i have not touched a proper cigarette since,but ever since ive been using it i have breathing problems,where i cant take a deep breath,like the air is trapped n some times it makes me panic a little and it will be sometimes 10minuates befor i manage to take a deep breath,?

I just started vaping and im using the watermelon flavor and I have noticed that if I vape right before bed I wake up in the middle of the night with horrible heart burn…. ugh…. but im like you glad im not the only one. I have been vaping for a week now and I think im gonna stop soon… good luck to ya

I have been using vapourizers for the last two to three months. I used to smoke 40 sticks a day for the last 15 years. The only changes i have discovered are a rapid increase in weight and i feel bloated always. Other then the above, I have never felt better. Thinking of giving up the vapaourizer next…….

I started my e-cig today, and after 4 hours of having it if started to need a pee all the time, I’ve been 5/6 times in the last hour. Can anyone tell me if this is a side effect? I also feel as thought there’s a lump in the back of my throat.

Hi I have been on e cigs for a few months started to notice needing to wee all the time. I had only just visited the bathroom when I got out of work I started vamping and immediately felt the need to wee again. Going to stop gaping and see what happens. I have only seen two reviews that talk about overactive bladder!

Been on e cigs for four weeks , started ok but lost taste, throat n tongue very sore, tastebuds falling off, extreme heartburn and acid, no amount of Davidson can settle, heart palpitations and short of breathe, have stopped using e cig and will carry on with no cigs, been smoking for 32 years, time to stop. E cigs just a temporary filler, not meant to be permanent.

Yeah needing to wee all the time in the last month is so I haven’t had a cape today and no urgency to wee no more gaping for me. I only smoked a couple of cigs a day but I was gaping every minute I wasn’t at work. Not a good alternative to smoking for me

I have been smoking the Vapor Cigarette for about a month now and I get acid reflex really bad I dont know if anyone else gets this way but it makes me worried. I feel like going back to smoking cigarettes. if there is something that can help with this I would really like to know.

Wanted to add my experience to this thread. Long story but will make it brief, I smoked for 30 years, gave up using the ecigarettes….I fell in love with vaping, I never wanted another cigarette…. Brilliant I thought…. I had planned to carry on vaping indefinately. About a year after I started vaping I started to notice things, the big one being my hair falling out, I had always had very thick hair and I started to notice it on my pillow and in the bath, also the texture of my hair changed completely, I started having to wash it every day, it felt greasy all the time…. The hair loss continued, I went to the Dr to get my blood checked just in case it was something else. Everything came back fine. Then I started to have hearing problems, and got diagnosed with a glue ear type problem, something which I had never suffered with before. It was a very difficult time, and I knew it was down to vaping…. Still I carried on for another 6 months, hoping it was something else. In the end I had to decide if I wanted my hair and hearing more than vaping. I looked terrible, my hair was lank and fine, with patches missing and I struggled to hear conversations with a constant buzzing in my ears. So I HAD to stop vaping, and my ears are better…. And my hair is growing back. There is NO doubt that vaping caused these problems for me, it can be a brilliant aid to quit smoking but people must be aware that it can come at a cost. I miss vaping hugely, but nothing is worth what I went through….

I have been looking for some sites to tell me why my hair is falling out. I am 36 and a Quit Smoking now for two months. I have been vaping ever since. I have a question, was it the VG or PG that caused your hair loss?
Did you ever find out what it was caused by? I am at the 6 mg nicotine level. It is really getting bad and I just want to know if I go to zero nicotine is that going to make my hair stop falling out?
Thanks Ginger

Thank you for sharing this Amanda, and my story is very similar. I started vaping six months ago having quit normal cigs for 6 months. My digestive system was a mess, but I didn’t want to start smoking again (I quit because I actually couldn’t breathe at night). Having read your story I realise I have no option but to stop vaping. Like you I had a full head of hair, and now after six months it is falling out dramatically. I am also washing it every day because of the greasiness, it is noticeably patchy and I can see my scalp which is alarming. Apparently nicotine itself constricts the blood vessels which can cause hair to fall out, and I believe I have been taking in much more nicotine with the vaping (also because it’s easier to do more often!). My hearing is also slightly affected, and other side effects include bad dry skin with acne, nervousness and anxiety, nausea at night, painful muscles and a sore, dry throat. Can’t wait for my hair to start growing back in never mind everything else!

I’m having a similar experience. Started smoking again (after quitting for 4 years) beginning new years day and decided I needed something “healthier” then made a switch to vaping (note that I had about 2 cigs per day). Been vaping for approx. 3 months now and had just recently switch to 18 mg nic. for a month and a half now. Recently, I’ve been noticing regressing hair on my left hairline and its gotten worst this last week. It’s turning out to look like a bald spot. Im almost positive the switch to 18 mg nicotine was far too much for me.

Do you get pains in ya bak as I have been for three days I have only have my e tab for three wks and love it never did I think I could do it but pains I don’t need is it muscle or could it be more cure please

I was smoking for 20 years and last year Quit for 9 weeks. I was using Lozenges to help quit but gave in due to massive weight gain and severe depression. I went back to tobacco smoking and lost weight. Now I am on vapor E-cigs 18mg nicotine and I have got to say its been 3 days since no tobacco but my hair face palms and alsorts are greasy like i’m bathing in cooking oil. When I was on the lozenges I did get a tiny bit greasy but that went after a few days to a week. I can’t help but think that this is the result of vaping. Should I go on a lower nicotine level or just go cold turkey?

Some of these responses …. i mean wow ….
Side effects of e cig – you quit from cigs to a 0mg nicotine e cigarette and you complain of anxiety after a few weeks and you have never had anxiety in 25 years of smoking … hmmm maybe because you’ve basically quit cold turkey going from cigs to 0mg nicotine ? thats your body crying out for nicotine not a side effect of the device ?